Adopt Standards for Responding to Observed, Disclosed or Suspected AbuseChild sexual abuse is a crime and cases should never be handled "in-house" or "within the family." Unfortunately through many high profile cases, we've seen the devastating impact of organizations attempting to resolve the issue internally. Over the years we have also learned that countless children were faced with a secondary betrayal when they disclosed and their parents decided to keep it within the family. In both of these scenarios, victims are not validated and provided an opportunity to heal; child molesters are not held accountable for their actions; and in many cases the offenders continue to have access to children resulting in additional victims.

Adopt Standards for Responding to Boundary InfractionsRemember the Child Sexual Abuse Best Practices Boundaries are designed to interrupt grooming behavior BEFORE abuse occurs. So, although breaking boundaries should be taken very seriously and have pre-defined consequences, the act of breaking a boundary in and of itself does not indicate a crime has been committed. Therefore, it is appropriate to handle cases of broken boundaries in-house if it's related to a youth serving organization or within the family but both should be handled according to your pre-established and documented plan.